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Vatican envoy to India visits Golden Temple

Apostolic Nuncio Girelli, also an ambassador to Nepal, also posed for photographs with many people, including Father Joe Grewal….reports Asian Lite News

Vatican Ambassador to India, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, visited the Golden Temple and offered prayers on Sunday.

Apostolic Nuncio Girelli, also an ambassador to Nepal, also posed for photographs with many people, including Father Joe Grewal.

The Bishop congratulated the new Jathedar of Akal Takhat Sahib and the latter also prayed for the Jathedar’s good health.

Speaking to ANI, Fr Joe Grewal said he reached here for an inter-religious dialogue and was happy with the fact that India-Nepal ambassador was also accompanying him.

He said the Archbishop had come to India for some other purpose but attended the dialogue nevertheless and paid his greetings to the new Jathedhar.

He added that if any kind of misunderstanding crops up about religious faiths, the same could be resolved through a dialogue.

Pope Francis had appointed Girelli as the Vatican ambassador (apostolic nuncio) to India and Nepal in March 2021. Born in Predore, Bergamo, in northern Italy’s Lombardy region, he was ordained as priest in June 1978 for the Diocese of Bergamo. He holds a doctorate in theology and a master’s degree in canon law.

Pak drone near border

A joint team of Border Security Force (BSF) and Punjab Police, on Sunday morning recovered another Pakistani drone near India-Pakistan International Border in Amritsar district.

The drone was recovered from the outskirts of Kakkar village in Amritsar following a search operation launched by the BSF and Punjab Police on specific information. During the search, the BSF said, its troops along with police personnel recovered a drone from the farming field adjacent to Kakkar village.

“The recovered drone is an assembled Quadcopter,” said the BSF, adding “yet another Pakistani drone was recovered by the joint efforts of BSF and Punjab Police.”

Earlier on Saturday, the BSF recovered a drone near India-Pakistan Border in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.

The drone was intercepted at around 9.05 pm on Friday near Pallopati village in Tarn Taran district and the BSF troops immediately reacted to intercept the drone as per the laid down drill.

The drone was also a Quadcopter of the model – DJI Matrice 350 RTK series. (ANI)

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Pope Francis admitted to hospital with respiratory infection

“Pope Francis is touched by the many messages received and expressed his gratitude for the closeness and prayer.”..reports Asian Lite News

Pope Francis has been admitted to hospital with a respiratory infection after experiencing difficulty breathing in recent days, and will remain in the Rome hospital for several days of treatment, the Vatican said.

“In the past days, Pope Francis had lamented some respiratory difficulties and this afternoon was brought to the Gemelli Hospital for a medical check,” Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The result of these [tests] highlighted a respiratory infection (excluding COVID-19 infections) that will require several days of appropriate hospital treatment,” Bruni said.

“Pope Francis is touched by the many messages received and expressed his gratitude for the closeness and prayer.”

The 86-year-old pontiff’s schedule for tomorrow and Friday has been cancelled, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, adding that the pope already had a chest CT scan and that his blood’s saturation levels were fine. No heart problems have been detected, it added.

Overall, the situation should not be of particular concern, medical sources told ANSA. In a previous statement, Bruni said that the visit to the hospital had already been planned.

It remains unclear when Francis will return to the Vatican, where Palm Sunday and Holy Week celebrations leading up to Easter will be held next week.

The Argentine-born leader of the Roman Catholic Church held his weekly general audience on St Peter’s Square in front of thousands of believers on Wednesday morning.

He was scheduled to give a television interview afterward, but had to cancel and was taken to the hospital by ambulance instead.

Television news crews, reporters and press photographers were posted outside the hospital on Wednesday evening, where they watched the room on the 10th floor where the pontiff is staying.

In July 2021, Francis had intestinal surgery at the same hospital and spent 11 days there recovering. In a recent interview, he indicated that he was again having trouble with his intestines.

The pope has also been suffering from severe knee problems for more than a year, which often require him to use a wheelchair.

Francis has so far declined to undergo surgery on his knee – reportedly in part because he did not react well to anaesthesia during the previous operation.

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Benedict XVI buried in Vatican crypt

The Vatican estimates than 200,000 people had attended the three-day vigil for the 95-year-old, who had announced his retirement from office in 2013…reports Asian Lite News

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI was laid to rest in a vault beneath the Vatican after a service led by Pope Francis and attended by 50,000 people including heads of government and royal guests.

The Vatican estimates than 200,000 people had attended the three-day vigil for the 95-year-old, who had announced his retirement from office in 2013.

Francis made only fleeting reference to Benedict in his homily, offering a meditation on Christ instead of a eulogy of his predecessor’s legacy before the casket was sealed and entombed in the basilica grotto.

“Holding fast to the Lord’s last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father,” Francis said.

Many mourners hailed from Benedict’s native Bavaria and donned traditional dress, including coats to guard against the morning chill.

The former Joseph Ratzinger, who died on December 31st,  is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest theologians and spent his lifetime upholding church doctrine. But he will go down in history for a singular, revolutionary act that changed the future of the papacy.

Francis has praised Benedict’s courage in stepping aside.

A choir’s hymn echoed in the crypt as the casket was lowered into the ground, featuring Benedict’s papal coat of arms, a cross and a plaque noting in Latin that it contained his body: “Corpus Benedicti XVI PM,” for “pontifex maximus” or “supreme pontiff.”

While Thursday’s Mass was unusual, it does have some precedent: In 1802, Pope Pius VII presided over the funeral in St. Peter’s of his predecessor, Pius VI, who had died in exile in France in 1799 as a prisoner of Napoleon.

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Vatican envoy suggests papal visit may be imminent

The Ambassador, on the other hand, reported that Francis had underlined his closeness to the Ukrainian people and expressed the willingness to show this in a visit…reports Asian Lite News

The Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican suggested that Pope Francis might soon visit the war-torn country.

Ukraine has been waiting for the head of the Catholic Church since Russian launched its ongoing war on February 24, Andrii Yurash said in a tweet following an audience with the Pope, adding they would be happy to “welcome him before his trip to Kazakhstan”.

The Pope is planning a three-day trip to Kazakhstan on September 13.

The Vatican did not make public any details of the conversation with Yurash, but only confirmed the meeting on Saturday.

The Ambassador, on the other hand, reported that Francis had underlined his closeness to the Ukrainian people and expressed the willingness to show this in a visit.

Since the war began, Pope Francis has said several times that he would like to visit Ukraine to promote peace.

However, he has been plagued by a knee injury for some time that has often forced him to use a wheelchair, so it seems unlikely he would make a long train journey to Kiev, for example.

Flights are still impossible to the capital of Ukraine.

On returning from a recent trip to Canada, the Pope said while he still wanted to travel, trips might have to be planned on a slightly smaller scale in the future.

ALSO READ-Vatican trial places Pope Francis, aides at centre of London deal

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Vatican trial places Pope Francis, aides at centre of London deal

Di Ruzza testified that he met with Francis on or around March 26, 2019 and that Francis told him that he wanted to have a “direct management, without intermediaries” in the property…reports Asian Lite News

The former director of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency testified Wednesday that Pope Francis asked him to help the Vatican Secretariat of State get full control of a London property, once again putting the pope and his top deputies in the spotlight for their roles in the problematic deal.

Tommaso Di Ruzza is one of 10 people accused in the Vatican’s sprawling financial trial, which is centred on the Secretariat of State’s 350 million euro ($370m) investment in a luxury London property. Vatican prosecutors have accused brokers and Vatican officials of fleecing the Holy See of millions of euros in fees, much of it donations from the faithful, and then extorting the Vatican of 15 million euros ($15.8m) to get full control of the property.

Di Ruzza, the former director of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, or AIF, is accused of abuse of office for allegedly failing to block the 15 million ($15.8m) payment to broker Gianluigi Torzi and of allegedly failing to alert Vatican prosecutors to a seemingly suspicious deal.

Di Ruzza testified Wednesday that he had neither the authority to block the payment, nor the sufficient evidence at the time to flag it to Vatican prosecutors as suspicious under international norms or the Vatican’s own anti-money laundering laws.

Furthermore, he testified that AIF’s involvement in the deal was correct, noting that as soon as he learned about the deal he launched a multi-pronged, international financial intelligence investigation that was active when Vatican police raided his headquarters on October 1, 2019.

“I have always acted in compliance with the rules and to protect the interests of the Holy See,” he said.

At issue in the case are contracts signed between Torzi and the Secretariat of State in November and December 2018 asserting that the Vatican would own 30,000 shares in the London property’s holding company and Torzi 1,000. But Torzi’s shares were the only ones with the right to vote, meaning he controlled the building.

By December 2018, the Vatican realised it had an empty box on its hands, and scrambled to figure out a way to get full control of the building: either by buying out Torzi’s shares or launching legal action against him for what the Vatican considered to be a fraudulent deal.

The number-two official or substitute in the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, has already told prosecutors that based on Pope Francis’s desire to “turn the page” and spend as little as possible to get control of the building, the Vatican decided to pay off Torzi rather than take him to court.

Di Ruzza testified that he met with Francis on or around March 26, 2019 and that Francis told him that he wanted to have a “direct management, without intermediaries” in the property.

Pena Parra had sought AIF’s opinion about approaching the Vatican Bank, known as IOR, to obtain a 150 million euro ($158.4m) loan to extinguish the mortgage on the property since the existing mortgage was too onerous, Di Ruzza said. AIF was asked to make sure the loan was compliant, which Di Ruzza said it was.

Di Ruzza said AIF opened an investigation into the deal on March 18, 2019, sending requests for financial information to a half-dozen countries’ financial intelligence units, soon after it learned about it from Pena Parra.

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Modi Invites Pope Francis to India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a warm meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City. (Photo Credit: Narendra Modi twitter)

The meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Pope Francis was scheduled only for twenty minutes however, it went on for an hour, sources said, reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Pope Francis to visit India during a “very warm” meeting at the Vatican City which lasted for an hour on Saturday.

“Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India,” Modi tweeted after meeting the Pope.

The meeting was scheduled only for twenty minutes however, it went on for an hour, sources said. PM Modi and the Pope discussed a wide range of issues aimed at making our planet better such as fighting climate change and removing poverty.

Pope
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a warm meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City. (Photo Credit: Narendra Modi twitter)

It may be recalled that the last Papal Visit happened in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and Pope John Paul II came.
Now it is during PM Modi’s term that the Pope has been invited to visit India.

PM Modi departed from the Vatican City after his meeting with Pope Francis on Saturday ahead of the G20. He was accompanied by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar.

The Vatican is a city-state surrounded by Rome and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

Prime Minister arrived in Italy on Friday to participate in the two-day G20 Summit. PM Modi will participate in the G20 opening session on Global Economy and Global Health today.

He is also scheduled to have a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and a meeting with the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo. PM Modi is expected to have a meeting with Singapore PM Lee Hosein Loong as well.

In the evening, PM is scheduled to arrive at Terme di Diocleziano for a cultural programme. Later, there is a dinner planned for G20 leaders and partner countries.

While briefing about the Prime Minister’s Italy visit, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday said that PM Modi will discuss the economic situation, COVID-19 pandemic, sustainable development and climate change with G20 leaders.

On Friday, PM Modi met with top European Union leaders and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. They congratulated Prime Minister Modi for India’s excellent progress on the COVID-19 vaccination.

Prime Minister also interacted with members of the Indian community-based in Italy. PM Modi will be in the capital city of Italy till October 31. (ANI)

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Modi Arrives in Vatican City to Meet Pope

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that there is no set agenda for the meeting between PM Modi and Pope, reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the Vatican City on Saturday to meet Pope Francis ahead of the highly anticipated Group of 20 (G20) Summit.

PM Modi is accompanied by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar.

The Vatican is a city-state surrounded by Rome and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. While briefing about the Prime Minister’s engagements in Italy, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday said that there is no set agenda for the meeting between PM Modi and Pope.

Prime Minister arrived in Italy on Friday to participate in the two-day G20 Summit. This summit will be the eighth G20 Summit attended by the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Modi today is scheduled to have a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and a meeting with the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo. PM Modi is expected to have a meeting with Singapore PM Lee Hosein Loong as well.

In the evening, PM is scheduled to arrive at Terme di Diocleziano for a cultural program. Later, there is a dinner planned for G20 leaders and partner countries.

Shringla on Friday had said that Prime Minister Modi will discuss the global economic situation, COVID-19 pandemic, sustainable development and climate change with G20 leaders.

On Friday, PM Modi met with top European Union leaders and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. They congratulated Prime Minister Modi for India’s excellent progress on the COVID-19 vaccination.

Prime Minister also interacted with members of the Indian community-based in Italy and those who have a close association with India through spheres like academics.

PM Modi will be in the capital city of Italy till October 31. (ANI)

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